Peter has similar advice to familial relations as did Paul in Ephesians 5:22 et seq. Peter advises marriage harmony, women "submit" to husbands and husbands respect their wives.
This is one of those statements from the Bible that gets thrown around a lot, both as a reason to subjugate women in marriages and to dispense with the advice found in the Bible.
For starters, 'divorcing' the husband's corollary duty to respect the wife is actually un-Biblical. Both Peter and Paul discuss reciprocal duties in the marriage and these should be viewed together.
Finding a proper application to this in the modern sense is difficult since Peter and Paul both spoke to cities in ancient Rome. At the time, women were not even allowed to testify in court. Maybe we should also remind ourselves at this point that Paul said that people should only get married if they burn. 1 Corinthians 7.
When Peter speaks to women in particular, his emphasis is on the importance of inner beauty. This inner beauty is a "gentle and quiet spirit". In other words, be nice to people and you will always be beautiful. If we look at the modern application through this principle, I think it reinforces the expectation of harmony in the marriage.
An open question is if a husband does not respect the wife, is there no longer a reciprocal duty?
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